Mechanisms of functional restoration after brain injury.

The mechanisms accounting for clinical improvement after brain injury are still a matter of debate. Better knowledge of the recovery process is important for it might be influenced by therapy. This article reviews a number of studies devoted to the physiopathology of recovery from aphasia and visuo-spatial neglect after the acute stage, using various methods (cerebral blood flow and metabolism measurements, dichotic listening, transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, functional magnetic resonance imaging) with special reference to the contribution of methods using activation procedures.